The darkness of shadows
by Lara-is-my-rolemodel
Summary: KurtisLara after AOD. Lara thought she had destroyed the only way of bringing back the nephilim, but she was wrong...PLZ review
1. the rescue

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First Update

"Rescue"

Snow flakes fell gently onto the ground covering everything in a thick coat of snow, as Lara stepped out of the Strahov she started to sink into the ground. The white powder came up to her knees and made it difficult for her to walk, and to make matters worse her legs were sore and strained. Every step she took was a struggle.

'I must get somewhere warm', her teeth chattered and her eyes watered from the ice cold wind. She tried to keep her mind off her freezing thighs but it was impossible as she was wearing shorts. As she reached a frozen fountain she had to stop and rub her skin to try and warm up, the cold was almost unbearable. Her arms and legs were frozen, her socks were wet making her toes numb, the blood on her arm from where a bullet had grazed her was frozen and her lips were blue turning purple,_'I can't stop here, I must keep going or I will die here'_, She kept walking towards the nearest car, thinking '_It's my only hope'_

She was 10 feet away, her legs were in terrible pain and they kept giving way making her fall in the snow. Now she was just in front of it, she reached out and pulled the car door handle, it was locked,_'What was I thinking? Of course it was going to be locked'_, Her teeth started to chatter violently as a gust of frosty wind blew over her goose bumped skin. Now her body had a mind of its own, it wouldn't listen to her. Her knees gave way again but she couldn't get up this time, she lay on her left cheek in the snow. She could feel it melting around her into her thin clothes and more snow fell on top of her covering her brunette hair in tiny dots of white.

'This is it, this is how I am going to die. Face down in the snow. what a heroic death' . She closed her eyes and just lay there helpless. But just as she thought it was all over she felt two warm hands scoop her up and carry her, she couldn't open her eyes as her eyelids were now frozen shut, she started to panic and she tried to get herself out of the person's arms but she was too weak,

'_Who is this?'_, she couldn't do anything as her body was still to weak. She felt like she was about to faint, her head hurt, her muscles were stiff and she could taste bile in her throat. 

__

'I must stay awake.' But it wasn't working, she fainted and her frail body feel limp in her rescuer's arms.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

When Lara woke up she was no longer in the freezing cold but wrapped up warmly in blankets, duvets, quilts and sheets. She sat up slowly even though he muscles screamed in protest and looked around. She was sitting in a double bed in a hotel room, it was obviously a hotel room because of the tacky wallpaper and colour co-ordinated furniture. She looked down at her arms and realised she wasn't in her clothes anymore, she was wearing a pair of thick fuzzy green pyjamas.

__

'Who changed my clothes', she thought immediately 

Then right on cue a door to her right opened and Kurtis walked out, he looked just the same as he did when Lara last saw him. His dark hair drooped messily on his head, his chin rugged with a goatee and amazing azure eyes that made Lara feel spellbound as she looked into them. 

He was only wearing a pair of green trousers, he had no shoes or shirt on. Around his muscled torso there was a bandage with a stain of blood on it. Its was obvious that he was embarrassed, his cheeks were a deep shade of pink and he looked very surprised to see Lara sitting awake on the bed staring at him.

"Finally awake." He said simply

"umm…Yes…What time is it?" Lara said trying to start a conversation, _'He has a wonderfully toned torso…SHUT UP!_

"1 PM, I found you yesterday freezing to death outside the Strahov." 

"I figured as much," he shot her a nasty look "But I suppose thanks are in order." she smiled

"Your welcome, and don't think to much of it. I mean I couldn't have left you there." He ran his hands through his thick hair "Anyway, how do you feel?" He asked Lara.

"Better, what about you? Actually what happened to you?" Lara asked Kurtis, he walked over to a chair and picked up a white long sleeved shirt, he pulled it over his head and sat down in the chair.

"Oh this," he pointed to his waist where the bandage was "I thought I had killed Boaz but she ended up becoming some kind of demented insect, She went down easily after that and I honestly thought I had finished her off. But when I turned my back she stabbed me."

"Is she still alive?" Lara asked

"No, when I turned around I decapitated her. Thanks for your concern." He added sarcastically 

"Your welcome," Lara replied with a smile "so just a question, but how did I get into these clothes?"

"you wish." Kurtis said as he fished around in his trouser pockets

"Don't flatter yourself, now answer my question."

"I did do it, but if you haven't noticed you are in your underwear. So do read to much into it." Kurtis replied,_'I'm so glad you were asleep while I did it, or you would have kicked the shit outta me.'_, he shook the thought from his head and took a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket with a box or matches. He took a cigarette out of the box and struck a match "Your cloths are dry and they are hanging on the radiator in the bathroom." he took a drag from his cigarette and pointed to the door that he had come from, Lara got up slowly and grimaced in pain

"Are you alright?" Kurtis asked 

"yes, just a little sore still." Lara replied, then she shuffled to the bathroom.


	2. whats pleasure without pain?

Disclaimer: I do not own tomb raider or anything to do with it, all I own is the plot

When Lara came out of the bathroom she saw the TV was on but Kurtis wasn't there,_'It as if I have 'desert me' stamped on my forehead'_, she walked over to the bed and sat down. AS she did she felt something under her hand, it was a note.

**Croft,**

I'm not sure if you heard the good news yet. Watch the news and you will see what I mean. Anyway, I have just gone out; I have ordered a bottle of champagne so if someone is at the door it is room service. I will be back soon.

Kurtis Trent 

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'So, your name is Trent', Lara smiled, then she looked over at the TV and flipped through all the channels until she found what she was looking for, BBC news. A woman in a lilac suit, with blonde hair and heavy make-up was sitting at a desk with a very fake backround of a city behind her

**__**

'Breaking news, Lady Lara croft is no longer a wanted woman.

Yesterday the Strahov Library in Prague exploded revealing an underground complex. 40 bodies have been found and 14 survivors are in the emergency room of the hospital in Prague, emergency services are still looking for survivors.

Early this morning a man arrived at the Prague police station claiming he had evidence that Lara Croft was not the Monstrum. A few hours later Detective Claus Braun held this press conference…' 

a man in a horrible brown suit with black hair and a stack of papers walked up to a podium, a group of journalists stood in front of him blinding him with camera's and shouting questions at him. He coughed loudly and they all fell silent

**__**

'Today some new evidence was brought to our attention about the Monstrum, at this time, I am not authorised to tell you what it is and I can not tell you who gave us this information for this person's safety. But what I can tell you is that Lara croft is innocent, and we know who the monstrum really is. His name is Pieter Van Eckhardt, we don't have a lot of information about his whereabouts at this time, but a source tells us that he was in the Strahov, whether he is alive or not is still unknown. 

And I would like to add. If Lady Croft is watching I would like to tell her that on the behalf of the Parisian and Prague police we are all very sorry for the inconvenience. 

And that concludes this conference.' 

Lara's mouth was hanging open,_'I don't believe it, I'm free'_, she felt like she could fly she was so happy, _no more nephilim, no more Karel and no more Eckhardt, I can finally take a break.'_

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'This just in, our first news about the evidence on the Monstrum, 

There is a possibility that Joachim Karel, Eckhardt's right hand man might be the Monstrum. Apparently The source of the new information watched as Lady Croft had a show down with both Eckhardt and Karel and defeated them both. 

The Explosion apparently started in the very room that Miss Croft defeated them, apparently the rescue service had found two bodies badly burnt in this room.

A man placed a small pile of papers on the desk and rushed off.

**_Oh my…but…how?…Sorry ladies and gentlemen this is quite shocking. Apparently one of that bodies that was believed to be Karel has…disappeared. They have taken the other body to be identified, we will find out more on that. But now its time for a break, please stayed turned for live news from the explosion site.'_**

Suddenly the happy feeling was gone,_'I knew he was still alive, it was just to easy. I mean he is a nephilim. Of course a little explosion isn't going to kill him. Shit where could he be? He will be looking for me soon.'_, Lara quickly flipped channels looking for another news channel who were covering it. All the local Stations were but she didn't have the faintest idea what they were saying, she finally found sky news where they had a reporter live on the scene

**_'I am Nick Owen Live in Prague where the explosion of the Strahov library took place just yesterday. At the moment Emergency services are still searching for survivors, but they say it doesn't look good as they have already found 19 more victims of the explosion which make 59 deaths in total and still only 14 survivors. Earlier when I spoke to Mr. Anstieg the chief of emergency services, he was completely mystified by the disappearance of one of the victims bodies. This body was believed to be Joachim Karel as the other body found with him was that of Pieter Van Eckhardt. Police are looking for Karel as he is believed to be linked with the monstrum…'_**

A picture of Karel came up on the TV, his cold eyes stared at Lara, she could feel them burning into her as if he was haunting her. The reporter continued to talk but Lara wasn't listening anymore, she knew he was probably just repeating what the other network had said like they always do on news channels. A knock on the door brought Lara back to reality, she got up and opened the door. Outside in the hallway there was no one there, she stepped out of the room just to make sure, [I]'probably some bored kid'[/I], Lara shrugged then walked back into the room and closed the door behind her. Suddenly she felt something whack the back of her head. She fell to her knees feeling drowsy , she swayed back and forth till she fell face down on the floor and she saw a blurry figure standing over her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Lara woke up she saw Kurtis looking over her, her head was in incredibly pain and she basically felt like shit.

"What is it with you and passing out." Kurtis said sarcastically

"that time I was knocked out." Lara said as she tried to get up, but she did it too fast making her head hurt even more

"Here," Kurtis passed her a cloth full of ice, she put it on her head "Do you want some aspirin?"

"If it will help, sure." Lara said with a grimace as she touched the spot where her head hurt the most, [I]'Bugger, I'm bleeding. Who ever did this will not live to regret it.'[/I], She got up very slowly from the floor and stumbled over to a chair

"here, take one of these." he handed her a white pill and a glass of water, Lara looked at the little pill then at Kurtis

"What? don't you trust me?" Kurtis said coldly Lara shrugged and swallowed the aspirin 

"Thanks." She hand him back the glass,

"I got you some warmer clothes." Kurtis walked over to a white plastic bag on the bed and threw it at Lara's feet. She picked up the bag and looked inside, there was a pair of black trousers and a black long leather coat inside.

"Well you do have good fashion sense." Lara said with a smile

"thank you." Kurtis replied "before I forget, I found this next to you." He handed her a thick brown envelope

"What is it?" Lara asked

"How the fuck would I know, its addressed to you." Kurtis walked over to the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of champagne and two chilled glasses "I guess you heard the good news." 

"Yeah, I still can't believe it." Lara opened the envelope and a file fell out with a piece of folded up white paper attached to it:

****

Lady Croft,

You freed me and from those sadists so I decided to help you. I have already helped you once by telling the police about Karel and Eckhardt, but I am going to help you a second time. After all you did help me.

This file I have given you is Karel's, it has everything he was planning in it. How he was going to revive his kind, where he was going and all his research. Croft, after reading this I have realised that the Nephilim must never walk the earth again. 

As I am sure you are aware he is still alive, watch your back. He will try to put his plan in action again, I know this man, he is evil, the utter most evil that exists. Stop him, don't let the watchers be freed.

I am not going to tell you my name in case this package is intercepted for now call me 'Phoenix'.

"So what does it say?" Kurtis asked as he passed Lara a glass of champagne, she just passed 

him the letter, then took a long gulp of her champagne draining the glass then setting it down on the table. Kurtis read the letter rather quickly then put it down next to the empty glass and raised an eyebrow as he saw all its contents were gone

"Now aren't Ladies meant to be serene and delicate?" Kurtis asked

"Its only a title not a personality." Lara replied with a smile

"Whatever, lets look at these files." He replied

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Guys more reviews if u want more, otherwise I think no one likes it. Btw sorry about all the mistakes I make, im not very good at this so just bare with me.


	3. The watchers

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Just so I don't get sued: I do not own Tomb raider or anything that is associated with it, all I own is the plot.

PS: all the stuff in this update referring to the nephilim, is from research. I do not wish to offend anyone. This is just my idea that is based around the facts I found. If ur pissed, didn't mean to sorry. I do not wish to offend anyone's religion

Update three

"The watchers"

Lara and Kurtis sat on the floor surrounded by paper and empty champagne flutes, they each had a piece of the file and they were writing notes down in separate notepads. Kurtis sighed then stood up and stretched

"So what you got?" he asked as he fell back onto the blue sofa, Lara got up and tip toed around all the documents and sat next to Kurtis on the sofa

"I got a lot of stuff on the sleeper, but I can safely say that its dead so I didn't bother writing any notes on it, but otherwise this is what I found out about the nephilim" she picked up her notebook and started to read out loud "The nephilim are the children of angles and women. What happened was, a group of rebel angles called 'the watchers' fell in love with the beautiful women of earth, they descend from heaven and marry them and reproduce like rabbits thus creating the nephilim. You following me so far?"

"yeah, continue." Kurtis replied

"Anyway, the watchers taught mankind about forbidden things like witchcraft, constructing weapons and armour hence creating war and murder, astrology and cosmetics. They raise their children ,the nephilim, on this and they grow up to be a powerful race of killing monsters. when god finds out what his angels have done to mankind, he punished them to eternal entombment in Tartarus, it's a place worse than hell where they would await God's judgment when they would be cast into hell. Their children fight to the death thus killing them all and the humans are killed in the flood. Apart from Noah of course, and apparently three nephilim survived, **'They stowed away on the arc and when the flood ended they ran away and started a new life far away from their past' **as Karel put it. " Lara put down her notebook and looked at Kurtis "What did you find out?"

"Karel writes about this book, he calls it the **'Libri Veneficus'**, the book of spells, it's a book written by the nephilim in the 14th century and its entire purpose was to free their ancestors from Tartarus. From my knowledge as a Lux Veritatus member, the nephilim tried to use this book during the 15th century but we stopped them, they got away and were never seen again and nor was the book. I can only guess that one of them was Karel. The problem is he doesn't say anything about the location of the book."

"Do you have any ideas how we could find it?" Lara asked

"Salt lake city." Kurtis replied but noticed the puzzled look on Lara's face "My house is there, with my father's study that I haven't touched. I seem to remember reading about it in one of his books."

"But isn't that probably going to put us off course a little?"

"What course?" Kurtis raised his hands and shrugged "We don't know where Karel is or how bad a state he is in. But I must say after that explosion he couldn't be in very good shape."

"Alright, you make the arrangements and I will get some supplies." Lara sighed and got up

"Where shall we meet?"

"At the airport," She looked at her watch "In an hour, bring your bike I will get documents for it along with the guns and stuff. We will need it." Lara replied

"Sure, I will make the arrangements and pack the bags." Kurtis said as he picked up the receiver. Lara put her coat on and walked out the door wrapping the coat tightly around herself preparing for the blistering cold awaiting her outside.

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Thank you for all your reviews guys, its nice to know people are reading it. Sorry it took me so long to update but I wasn't feeling very creative and plus I went back to school this week so I was kind of busy.

Anyway please keep reviewing and I will reward u with an uppie and a cookie :P LOL


	4. Colt45

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Disclaimer: I do not own Tomb raider or anything that is related to it, all I own here are the plot and the characters that do not belong to Eidos or core design…even though they won't be doing the games anymore stupid Eidos

LC: I told u!! god! And u made me change it!!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…I will change it AGAIN! But not yet…grrrr

PS: I didn't know what type of bike Kurtis has so I just picked a type that I liked

Update four

"Colt.45"

The snow continued to fall heavily and the ice cold winds made Lara clutch on tighter to the leather coat she was wearing, her head and shoulder were covered in tiny white dots and so were her black boots. The level of snow was lower then when she was outside earlier, it only came up to her ankles now but it was slowly rising.

She looked up at the dark sky and gazed at the stars and snow that was falling on her face, she closed her eyes and letting the snow fall freely on her skin, '_if only all my moments could be as peaceful as this'_, then she opened her eyes and continued to walk down the long street.

When she reached the end she turned right and down a dark alley, a deep heavy beat was vibrating through the floor making the aluminium trash cans move across the ground, Lara could feel it through he boots tickling her feet. The music was coming from a nightclub in the alley, it was called **'The glass shadow' **Lara knew it and the owner.

His name was Peter Colt, he was an ex-American FBI agent, but he wasn't on good terms with them anymore. They had sent him on a mission to assassinate a UN VIP, but they had set him up because he got a little bit to nosy. Colt managed to make it out alive but lost a leg as he escaped from the explosion killing everyone except him. Now he has a false leg and a steady business as the owner of the nightclub he lived above, and for extra cash he used his old contacts to get fake documents and weapons.

Lara walked past the long line of people waiting to get in the club and stopped in front of a door nearby to the main entrance, she knocked and the small square in the door slid open revealing two brown eyes that stared at her.

"Who are you?" a gruff male voice asked

"I am here to see Colt," the square closed again, Lara sighed and knocked again to be greeted by the same brown eyes "Tell him that the Tomb Raider is here."

"Alright, wait here." The door opened and Lara walked in. The owner of the brown eyes was a tall man with black hair he was very muscular and her had an Uzi in a shoulder holster. He left Lara by the door for about five minutes till he returned "I am Victor, Follow me." He said coldly then walked through an open door to his right.

He lead her though the club, Rob Zombie's dragula was blaring out of the speaker sending the kids on the dance floor wild. Lara followed Victor through the crowd of people towards a door at the end of the dance floor with two bouncers standing in front of it. Victor leant foreword to one of them and whispered something in his ear, the thug opened the door and stepped aside.

"lady Croft," Victor pointed to the door "This is where I leave you. I trust you know the way to his room." Lara nodded and walked through the door and was shut in.

She was in a tiny damp room with a single light, to her left was a spiral staircase and in front of her was another door. She smiled as she remembered which way to go and took the stairs. Her boots made a clicking sound as they connected with the metal steps, at the top of the stairs there was a wooden trapdoor, Lara pushed it open and pulled herself up into the room.

She got up from her knees and brushed the dust off her trousers then she closed the trapdoor behind her and then walked further into the room. The walls were a very dark red and all of the furniture was either the same colour or black, there was a round shaped bed with red silk sheets at the end of the room, there was a flat screen TV against the wall at the foot of the bed and tall red lamps lit the room with artificial light, _'Just like him to have no windows, he obviously hasn't changed much'_.

The sound of a door opening came from behind her, she turned around and smiled

"Good evening Colt.45." she said

"Long time no see Tomb Raider," He smiled "I'm surprised you remember my nickname let alone where I live, its been at least…7 years, a lot has happened since then. I heard the good news, congratulations."

"Thank you. Not too much has changed, your still here." Lara looked at him, he hadn't changed too much. He had shoulder length brown hair tied back in a pony tail, bright green eyes and snow white pale skin "Your so pale. Don't you go out anymore?"

"Is it that noticeable?" he sighed and limped over to her "Well, as you know it can get very cold here. And as you also know I am a leg short of two," He lifted up his left jean leg and revealed a wooden leg that started from his knee "And the combination is very painful. So I have learnt how to live without ever setting foot outside."

"You look like shit." Lara said as he stepped into the light, his hair was had grey streaks almost everywhere, he had bags under his eyes and his skin was beginning to wrinkle

"Thank you," He frowned at her "But you," he smiled and raised and eyebrow "Still look as sexy as ever. Are you still having fun with that guy West?"

"No," Lara said coldly as it was a subject she would rather not talk about "Anyway I am not here to catch up, I need some documents and weapons."

"Lara I didn't mean to piss you off," Colt said gently "How can I help you?"

"I need documents for carrying a Triumph motorbike and weapons on a plane, and I am going to need to delve into your private stash." Colt opened his mouth about to protest "don't worry I can pay you."

"Good, I will go do the documents now and you go get what you need." he handed her a black duffle bag "You still remember the code."

"I have the memory of an elephant." Lara winked then went though the door that Colt had come from.

Lara typed in the code, 1215, and the metal door swung open. She stepped in and smiled, _'Just like a kid in a candy store'_, the entire room was filled with guns and every type of killing device ever made all displayed neatly on shelves

Lara walked over to the shelf nearest to her and picked up four Uzi's, a desert eagle, and whatever else she could find that suited her including a Viper SMG and a Mega Vega

'_That should be enough for the both of us. Better get loads of ammo.'_, she grabbed as much as she could and added it to the bag. She picked up the bag now heavy with guns and walked towards the door, but as she was about to leave something caught her attention, the explosives. She took three packets of C-4 explosives with devices and some grenades. She smiled to herself then left, _'I hope Colt won't mind to much that I have cleaned him out.'_.

"Croft I hope you didn't take to much," Colt said as he heard Lara come in. He was now sitting in front of an apple computer "A guy has to protect himself."

"And those thugs downstairs aren't paid enough to do it for you?" Lara asked as she put the bag on the floor and then pulled out a stack off euros from her inside coat pocket and threw it on the desk "3000 euros should cover it."

"I would normally ask more, but for a friend I will make an exception. Your documents are over there." He pointed to a small coffee table

"Thank you." She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently, shrugged then leant foreword and kissed his cheek "It was nice to see you."

"Croft," He looked up at her "look after yourself." Lara smiled and nodded then she picked up the bag and put the documents in her coat, then she was gone.

Once she was outside she felt extremely depressed, she tried to pretend she didn't know why but she knew. She knew it was because of how much Colt had changed, he was once a very athletic and hansom man but now he was a pale, acrophobic, weak man. Lara sighed and headed to the main road, she looked up at the sky again, the snow wasn't as thick as before now she could see the stars and the clear night sky, _'Tempus Edax Rerum. Time the devourer of everything.'_, she looked over at the club again, she knew that was probably the last time she would ever see Colt again.

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Good? Bad? Reviews PLEASE!!


	5. plane trip

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Thank u all for the support, I never considered stopping writing but I just feel kinda sensitive about my mistakes cuz I want to try writing as a profession that is why I am writing, to get better. Constructive criticism is welcome

Lots of thinking in this one, not to happy with this update but I felt like writing and I had no other ideas so I thought I'd just do a thinking bit shrug

PS: I changed "the watchers" chappy to the way it was originally before LC and I got talking about it! Lol just pulling ur leg LC I am not pissed. However, I did change the story to the way it was a bit, all I changed was that it is not hell its Tartarus…whatever u go read it :P

Update Five

"a woman's mind is an enigma"

Lara and Kurtis boarded the Aeroplane after making sure that the bike was safely on board and that the guns where on the right plane. Kurtis took the aisle seat claiming 'I don't like looking out of the window' but Lara noticed a pretty blonde on the opposite side of the aisle.

Once they had been in the air for a few hours Kurtis had fallen asleep, but Lara was wide awake. She was staring out of the window at the clouds, since it was now morning the sun was shinning over the clouds laminating them in a butter yellow light with hints of orange that remained from the sunrise,

'_It so beautiful, maybe heaven is above the clouds.'_ she smiled to herself at the thought, she didn't believe in heaven, hell, god or the devil nor the Nephilim or at least she didn't before she had met one.

As a child she used to go to church every Sunday because of her mother, but when her grandmother died in a car crash her mother lost her faith and they never went to church again much to Lara and her father's delight. She was about 10 at the time and she had thought church was a waste of valuable time, so she used her Sundays to read her father's historical books with him and be annoying by asking questions she already knew the answer to.

__

'They were such good memories. He taught me everything I know, he drew me into his wonderful adventurous life. Then threw me out, it was like he shown me the world and then said "You can never have that", well its my life and I can do what I want.' she was now beginning to feel guilt mixed with depression that always came when she thought about her parents.

When she was 21 she married the man that her parents had matched for her since she was a child, but her marriage went down in flames, literally. Her plane crashed with her husband and friends leaving Lara as the only survivor, she had to use her wits and knowledge to survive the hostile conditions of the Himalayas away from her aristocratic life in England.

It was after that life changing moment that she started to become who she is now, but after eight years of her parents attempts to change her back to who she was they disowned her and she went to live with her aunt in Croft manor.

Her aunt had been her only relative who was proud to take her in, but when she died Lara was all alone. She was left the manor and all her aunts money as she had no heirs, and the only member of staff who agreed to stay on was her aunt's butler Winston.

He still lived there with her now but Lara had hired Hillary to help him and Bryce to take over as her technician as his eyesight deteriorated, they were her family now.

__

'I am 35 years old, I haven't spoken to my parents in nearly 7 years. And all I got from them when I came home to England after Egypt was a letter, and all it said basically was "I told you so". And did I get a phone call when I was proven innocent? NO! I have a bloody phone and they know the god damn number.' She started to frown, she hated thinking about her family it just made her get worked up over a lost cause.

She looked over at Kurtis who was still fast asleep with his face turned towards her, his face was relaxed and he was completely peaceful. Lara had never had this sort of closeness to anyone before, she wasn't even sure what their 'Relationship' was. Were they business partners, friends or just two people helping each other out?

All though Lara hated to admit it even to herself she like him, she liked him a lot, but she was also confused as her head was telling her to do the opposite of her heart. She couldn't decided which one to follow, she could have something more than a friendship with him but then it would get in the way of work or she could just not think about it and get the job finished.

she closed her eyes and fell asleep thinking about him while Kurtis dreamt of her.__


	6. unexpected

Okay here is a new chappy how u guys like it

Update six

Kurtis and Lara stepped out of the arrivals terminal at the Salt lake city airport and they were welcomed by the ice cold winds and light snow of winter, _'Great, from one cold windy snowy place to another.' _Lara thought bitterly

"I'll go get the bike, you wait here." Kurtis told her and then walked back into the airport, leaving Lara outside in the freezing cold. After about five minutes she couldn't feel her fingers anymore, _'Sod this, I'm going inside.'_. She picked up her bag and stomped back inside, she looked around the entrance hall for Kurtis but all she could see were millions of families in repulsive ski suits. She pushed her way through them ,which was like walking against a blizzard, towards the information desk but stopped dead in her tracks out of shock.

"Karel." She whispered. he was standing there almost exactly how he was back in Prague but he had a huge scar running down the right side of his face. He was standing at the information desk talking to a woman who looked like she was about to faint out of fear. He was not alone , there were four other men with him. Three of them were obviously his minions as they were all dressed in black, they were wearing sunglasses and their hands were all in their pockets obviously at the ready with some kind of weapon.

But the fourth man was a little strange, he was very pale, his eyes were cold and grey, purple veins stuck out of his neck, he was very quite and little twitchy.

__

'Shit, I better find Kurtis quick.' Lara looked around the airport everywhere. She found him by the snack bar buying hot chocolate for the both of them.

"Kurtis hurry we have company." Lara said as she grabbed his arm and dragged him back outside

"What's happening?" Kurtis asked as he handed Lara a cup of the steaming hot chocolate

"Karel is here. Where is your bike?"

"It should be waiting for me outside now."

"Quick, they must be here for the same reason as us." She looked around for the bike "There it is." they ran over to the bike, Lara on the back and Kurtis on the front "go go go!".

Kurtis sped out of the car park like a bat out of hell, then slowed down as they were farther away

"How far is it?" Lara asked

"Just around the corner." Kurtis called back to her.

He sped down a weaving and windy road, the headlights guiding the way and tiny pieces of snow laying themselves down on the road. The country side was breathtaking, beautiful pine trees covered in snow, owls flew overhead and wolves could be heard howling in the distance.

Lara tightened her grip on her bag and around Kurtis, it felt so eerie as they drove in the dark. Kurtis turned a corner down a drive way with huge hedges lining the sides and at the end of the driveway there was a magnificent house.

"Is that it?" Lara asked

"yep." Kurtis replied

The house had a big double door in front, windows for each room on each floor but they all had shutters closed on them, no lights were on there was no sign of live at all, even the fountain in front of the house was off.

Kurtis parked the bike right in front of the house, he got off them helped Lara off. He took the bag from her, Lara walked over to the fountain. It was two lover in an embrace, they were so well crafted, the expressions on their faces were done she found herself staring at them endlessly

"Come on, before we freeze." Kurtis called to her as he held the door open for her


	7. home sweet home

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Sorry it took so long to update but I have been away for a few days and I had school, exams and a guy I like I will not see for 3 months so I was a little preoccupied :P but here ya go hope ye like it

Update 7

The wind howled violently outside, it had suddenly started to snow heavily making the snow rise quickly up to the window sills

"looks like a blizzard, better put on the heat," Kurtis said as he looked out the window "Come with me first and I will take you up to your room."

He took the duffle bag and led Lara up a set of stairs and onto a long landing

"I am really surprised." Lara said as she looked around the beautifully decorated landing, it did not seem like Kurtis's style

"Why?" Kurtis laughed "Because of this house? Well if it is, then don't be. This was my father's house as I said, although I did grow up here it was never as grand as this when I was a child. My dad did a lot of work to it."

"So where do you live?" Lara asked

"I have an apartment in the city." Kurtis replied shortly

"Kurtis we should really start looking for information." Lara suddenly remembered Karel at the airport

"Don't worry we will. Just relax, take a quick shower and then we can go look in my dad's study. Well here you are," he stopped at the end of the landing and opened a door. Lara stepped in followed by Kurtis "it's the guest room, my room is down the other end of the corridor on the left." He pointed towards his left then he turned around and left. _'Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Doesn't matter, its not like she noticed what I was doing.' _Kurtis thought as he headed back down the stairs but Lara had noticed and she was thinking about whether or not she should remember that piece of information for later.

After a quick shower Lara walked down to Kurtis's room and knocked on the door

"Come in." Kurtis shouted, Lara opened the door and walked into his room. It was obvious he hadn't changed it since he was about 16, the walls were black although you couldn't see the walls because they ,and the ceiling, were covered with posters of Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Clash, Aerosmith, Sex Pistols and many other bands of the 70, 80s and early 90's

'Almost the same taste as me' Lara thought to herself as she looked around the room.

"They are kinda old aren't they?" Kurtis said as he ran his hands through his thick hair.

"Yes, but you have good taste…most of them don't really go together," She smiled at him "Shows you can't make a commitment."

"You wouldn't know much about that either from what I gather. Now lets go to the study." He opened the door for Lara and then followed her onto the landing again.

They walked down the flight of stairs and turned right down a long corridor till the very end where Kurtis stopped and lifted the painting off the wall to reveal a set of keys, he picked them up and replaced the picture then unlocked the door.

As Kurtis walked into the study he immediately smelt tobacco, the door to the study had been shut for so long the smoke had embedded itself in everything, It reminded him of his childhood. The good and the bad parts of it. Mostly the bad as there were more than the good _'Whenever I looked for sympathy or help I could never turn to him, I had no one to turn to. It was always the same "Be a man.", "I told you so.", "You can sort it out yourself." or "Don't be such a child." well I was a fucking child and you could have let me be one.'_ he clenched his fist in his pockets trying to stop himself from punching a wall.

"So what are we looking for?" Lara asked, oblivious of Kurtis's thoughts and clenched fists

"A map." Kurtis replied but kept looking in front of him at the bookcase behind his fathers desk.

"What kind of map? Be specific."

"I saw it when I was 14, I was sitting here with my dad and he was teaching me about the nephilim. He showed me a map the location of the Libri Veneficus was on there, I remember it clearly." he looked at Lara who was frowning.

"Are you completely sure?" she asked still looking at him.

"Ye of little faith." He rolled his eyes and walked over to the book case then started to run his fingers over all the books until he stopped and reached a thick brown leather book "Tell me Lara, do you know who said **_'My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss._**?"

"What has that got to do with anything?" Lara sighed as she placed her hands on her hips and titled her head to one side as she also raised her right eyebrow, '_Jesus that's makes her even more attractive' _Kurtis thought to himself

"Just answer the question." Kurtis sighed as he continued to look at her and think the same thoughts.

"It was Romeo to which Juliet replies **_'Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss._**'."

"Very good." Kurtis replied then took the thick book entitled **'William Shakespeare's plays'** and pulled it towards him making the book case slide into the wall. He walked into the secret passage and turned around waiting for Lara.

She walked past him giving him a small sexy smile which made Kurtis return it and raise his eyebrows as she passed. Then he pressed a button trapping them in a dark passage.

"Are there any lights in here?" Lara asked.

"You're not scared are you?" Kurtis teased as he felt the walls blindly for a light switch.

"I just don't trust you in the dark." Lara replied just as the lights turned on but she couldn't see Kurtis anywhere. She spun around and suppressed a sigh as she looked straight into his captivating blue eyes.

"I'm not an 11 year old boy." he purred huskily.

"But you _are _a boy." Lara replied in a weak whisper as he stepped so close to her that she could see his chest rise as he breathed deeply.

"And you're a girl." He stepped even closer to her so that they were nose to nose.

"That's stating the obvious." Lara sighed and then she turned around and headed for a door at the end of the hallway trying to ignore the feeling in her stomach and the weakness in her knees. She heard Kurtis muttering something under his breath, it was along the lines of "Why did I have to do that now?". Lara turned the brass handle on the door and walked through into the next room.

The whole room was a mess, but it was a mess of value. The whole room was full of ancient texts, maps; gold, weapons and various other ex-inhabitants of temples, all were Lux Veritatus relics.

Lara wanted to avoid Kurtis just for a few minutes so she could collect herself. She manoeuvred her way through the mess over to a glass cabinet and pretended to be fascinated with the objects inside as Kurtis entered the room.

Lara looked inside the cabinet at the silver object that were inside. A small paper sign in the cabinet told her all the artefacts were from Turkey from the mausoleum in Brodrum nothing special really, well to Lara anyway as she had been there herself a few times. She looked over all the pieces and looked over all the information next to them, one caught her eye.

It was a round silver medallion with ancient Persian engravings and dazzling green emeralds on it, Lara was having a problem reading it as she had never learnt Persian. She glanced over at the piece of paper pinned next to it.

**__**

"Found at the ruins of the mausoleum in Brodrum. The tomb was built for King Maussollos by his wife and sister Artemisia, it became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world but was destroyed by earthquakes and attacks by the Lux Veritatus during battles with the Nephilim over the years leaving only ruins. Although it is believe to be just a piece of jewellery possibly belonging to Artemisia. It is so much more, it is the key to a Nephilim temple under the mausoleum called Veneficus Fanum "the temple of spells." where they created the Libri Veneficus."

Lara opened the cabinet and carefully took out the medallion and put it in the back pocket of her trousers, _'It will come in handy no doubt.'_

"Lara!" Kurtis shouted

"WHAT!?" Lara snapped

"Jesus don't be so aggressive all the time." Kurtis said "I have found the map."

"So where are we going to next?"

"Italy." He pulled open the map then pointed to Italy and a small black spot marked Gaeta where also the words **_'Underwater tomb of_ _CYRUS_** **and location of the Libri Veneficus.'** were written

"right then lets go back to where we started." Lara said as she took the map from Kurtis's hands and they walked out of the room together back to their room and then met again at the bottom of the stairs exactly as they had been when they first arrived

"Ready?" Kurtis asked

"Yes-" Lara stopped as she heard the familiar noise of a gun being loaded, Kurtis had obviously heard it too as his hand was resting on his belt next to his chirugai. He raised a finger to his mouth and they both nodded. As they crept forward towards the noise the lights flickered off and they were plunged into darkness, Kurtis grabbed Lara's hand with his and led her through the darkness.

Footstep scurried across the ground behind them, Lara and Kurtis stopped dead in their tracks and stayed perfectly still in the dark.

__

'Fuck, they must have gotten in from the basement and split up.' Kurtis thought as he mentally kicked himself for not locking all the doors. Suddenly the lights came back on and revealed that Lara and Kurtis were encircled by a large group of heavy thugs.

Two of the men step back and let in another, he was wearing a black cloak with the hood over his face.

"Good evening miss Croft," He said as he raised his head and pulled back the hood to reveal his face, it was Karel "So nice to see you again." he smiled slightly "Do you like my new look?" He pointed to the scar running down his face

"Its such an improvement." Lara replied and Karel chuckled

"Nice to see you still have the same…spirit in you miss Croft. Now If you would be so kind as to hand over the map. Or will I have to need the help of Gunderson?" Gunderson stepped foreword looking exactly the same, he smiled and pulled out an Uzi from behind his back and pointed it at Kurtis.

Kurtis sighed and closed his eyes, then suddenly the lights began to flicker and the ground vibrated under their feet making everyone but Kurtis stumble. The ground began to rumble and vibrate more violently making paintings fall of the wall, tables and chairs fell to the ground and every glass object in the room cracked.

All the thugs fell to the ground and then Karel and Gunderson followed, Lara had managed to keep her balance for a while but eventual she began to fall. but Kurtis caught her arm and pulled her upright, his eyes still closed. Then they abruptly shot open and the lights turned off plunging them into darkness.

"Someone turn the lights back on!" Karel screamed, but all his fierce thugs were petrified and refused to move off the ground, not that it mattered anyway as Lara and Kurtis were already out the door with their one bag on Kurtis's bike leaving them behind.

So whatcha think?


	8. Gaeta

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I just felt inspired so I started to write, I'm not to happy with this uppie so I my end up changing it later. But for the moment here it is

And btw I am going away for a week next week so I won't be able to update, till then I will try to update at least once more. Can't promise anything though. Anyway enjoy and please review

Disclaimer: I do not own Lara, Karel or sadly Kurtis, or anything to do with Tomb Raider…(I know I should do this every chappy but I keep forgetting)

Chapter 8

"Gaeta"

Kurtis and Lara arrived in Gaeta late in the morning, the sun was out and the weather was considerably better than in Prague and Utah. They checked into a small hotel called "The Mediterranean Sun", it was cheap and it was all they could afford as they were running out of money.

Lara had a small room with that shared a bathroom with the room next to it that happened to be Kurtis's room.

On the plane, Lara had tried to ask Kurtis questions but he grumpily turned on his side and ignored her for the rest of the trip. Then when they arrived at the hotel, the only thing he said to her was "We'll meet in your room for dinner." Then he walked off into his room and locked the door.

At lunchtime, Lara decided to go for a walk in town to try to clear her head and maybe get some clues, as Kurtis obviously wasn't going to stop acting like a drama queen until this evening.

Lara decided to go for a walk later on in the day as she was getting bored of just sitting in her room reading over the files that the mysterious "Phoenix" had giving her, _'Who is this Phoenix anyway? He still hasn't shown himself yet.' _She thought as she stepped out of the hotel onto the tiny street.

She had gotten a map from the front desk and decided to go to the museum, as you never know if you may find something that was over look or covered up.

The Museum was located in a park not far from the hotel so Lara decided to walk.

Gaeta was a little village on the Tyrrhenian sea and most of the village was on the mountain face and the shops on the beach, Lara decided to go via the back of the village as there was a market going on down on the beach area.

It was completely empty up at the back, which was the way Lara like it, peaceful and quiet. She was glad she had chosen that way, she was glad she had chosen that way as it was the only part that the cretins who had designed the buildings on the shore hadn't touched.

They were all 19th century buildings and even the streets were still cobbled up there, it was very magical to Lara, as she had always thought that places like this had been destroyed.

She continued to walk through the back roads that became narrower and lead further away as she continued. After a while she realised she was no longer in the village but heading up a dirt path, she consulted her map and it said she was going to right way so she continued up the dirt path.

As she walked up a little further she found a tiny church hidden in the woods that covered the mountain, it was probably where the people who lived up in the forest went instead of walking down to the bigger one in town.

It was also 19th century and slightly crumbling, probably due to earthquakes and fires. Lara decided to go in and have a look, as she was tired and a little bit interested to see the inside.

She pulled open the single red door and slowly closed it as quietly as possible as there were people sitting in the pews.

The church was very dark as it was only lit by three small windows and candles, there were fading frescos of religious events on the walls, there was a small room to the left of the pews with bust and statues of saints and Madonna, at the altar there was a statue of the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus in her arms and to her right there were two confession boxes.

It looked as if they tried their best to cram everything into the tiny space they had and they managed to do a good job except they obviously had to give up a few pews for space.

Lara walked around the back of the pews towards the statues, she fished around in her pocket for a coin and dropped it in the pot full of coins and took a small candle.

She walked past the statues and bust of saints but she wasn't terribly interested in them as she was looking for a certain one St. Ursula. She was the daughter of a British Christian king set to marry a pagan prince, she wanted to preserve her virginity so she said she could only accept this marriage if the prince's father gave her 10 noble virgins each with a thousand virgins in her service and be allowed 3 years to consider the proposal. The virgins all embarked a ship and sailed through France as far as the Colonge and later to Basel. But Ursula's Fiancé grew frustrated and fired and arrow at her that killed her. The other virgins we killed by a king of the Huns.

She was Lara's favourite Saint and probably the only one she found slightly interesting.

She found her in the middle of the row of saints; Lara took the Candle and lit it then placed it on the try in front of St. Ursula. It was not the most beautiful Statue Lara had seen of Ursula, it was chipped so badly you couldn't see her face but the arrow sticking out of her chest showed it was defiantly her.

After a while, Lara decided she should leave for the museum so she headed for the door, but as she reached it, she noticed a bust sitting in the corner of the room that looked familiar.

As she got closer she still couldn't figure out what was familiar about this Saint, maybe it was a memory from when she had endure those boring hours of Sunday school.

It was so cold and haunting to Lara, even though it was made of marble Lara felt as if its eyes were staring at her.

"Posso aiutarlo a mancare?" a voiced asked, it was a priest. He was in his late 40's with black hair, a small moustache and glasses

"Parlate inglese?" Lara asked praying he did speak English

"A little," he said with a very distinctive Italian accent "Can I help you?"

"Actually yes, who is this saint?" Lara asked as she pointed to the bust

"This is St. Joachim he was St. Anne's husband, father of the Virgin Mary and Grandfather to Jesus Christ." he replied then he placed a hand on Lara's back "Are you alright? You've gone very pale." but Lara was not all right, she new why she had thought the bust was so familiar it was Karel. It amazing to think that Karel, a nephilim, could be the Grandfather of Christ.

"Yes, I'm fine thank you." Lara managed to say

"If you are sure?" Lara nodded

"Yes, thank you for your help. I have to go now." Lara turned around and stepped back out into the forest.

The whole time she walked back down into the city, she was thinking about it, the irony that Jesus was the grandson of Karel a nephilim, a son of an angel and a mortal.

She hurried back to the hotel to tell Kurtis her new piece of information but when she continued to bang on his door no one answered, she went down to the front desk and asked is he left they said "He had left about 30 minutes after you."

Lara went back to her room to wait for him and take a bath.


	9. The Adventure begins

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Well I kept to my word and wrote another uppie before I left for my holiday. Hope you are enjoying this fic and I am glad to see kurtis is popular….KTEB FOREVER!!

Anyway happy holidays!

Disclaimer: I do not sadly own Lara or Kurtis and Thankfully I do not own Karel (lol) and unfortunately I do not own tomb raider…

And I know I should do that every update but I forget :P

Oh and BTW I have never been to Gaeta but one of my fav architectural time periods is the 19th century so I just picked that, and the island next Gaeta does not exist. another thing, I ain't very religious so anything I write in this fic is research and may not be necessarily true. I don't want to offend anyone

And thank you all for the reviews -

Chapter 9

"The Adventure Begins"

At 7 o'clock Kurtis knocked on Lara's door, he had cooled off a little since the morning as he realised it was stupid to be pissed over a tiny detail such as Lara basically turning him down. He told himself its just business and that they should just be business partners other wise things would just complicated.

Lara opened the door and let him in but didn't say anything, they both walked over to the sitting area and sat opposite each other.

"So what did you find out?" Kurtis asked breaking the silence

"I went up to a church in the forest where I found out something about Karel. He is a saint and the Grandfather of Christ." Lara replied coolly then waited for his reply

"But that's not possible, he is a nephilim." Kurtis said uncertainly

"It was him, I swear." Lara said "I was just about to leave and I saw a bust sitting in the corner and as I got closer it looked terribly familiar but I couldn't place who is was. Then a priest told me it was St. Joachim, the wife of St. Anne who was the mother of the Virgin Mary."

"A nephilim is the grandfather of Jesus Christ," he smiled "So Christ was a quarter Nephilim."

"So where did you go today?" Lara asked

"I went to the museum to find out a little about this place and hopefully some clues to where the Tomb of Cyrus was."

"Well? Did you find anything?" Lara said impatiently

"Patient is a virtue," Kurtis said making Lara frown, and then he pulled out a little notebook "this is a legend in Gaeta so not many people believe in it, but nonetheless they have a small cabinet dedicated to it." Kurtis explained "In 1489 a ship brought many noble men from Turkey to Gaeta, they were men of the church and men from rich families. They stayed very private and frequently went out to sea to a nearby Island called _'Isola del piscatorial' _that was only in habited by a few fishermen who refused to leave after a volcanic eruption. One day a young boy followed them out to the island and watched them perform bizarre rituals, and as a Christian he told a priest who told he would take care of it. So the boy one day follows the newcomers again but this time they were not alone, he witness a great battle between the Turkish men and a group of men with "magical powers". The Lead of the Turks fell and his followers retreated, when the boy returned home no one believed him."

"So I suppose these Magical men were Lux Veritatus?" Lara asked

"Obviously, so now we know where the tomb is," he reached into his back pocket of his trousers and pulled out a small booklet "So I rented a small boat for tomorrow morning with scuba diving gear and a man who will take us out to the island."

"Perfect, what time do we leave?"

"6 am," Kurtis said rather grimly "Anyway let's order some room service."

Lara and Kurtis drove down to the beach at 6 am on the dot down to the beach where they met Giovanni there driver who was going to take them out to _Isola Del piscatorial._

When they arrived on the Island Lara felt a premonition coming on, it was to quiet; there were no birds singing no creatures walking around in the bushes and trees, the only sound that could be heard was the wind rustling the trees and the waves crashing into the shore.

Giovanni set up a small camp with a tent and a fire where he would wait for Lara and Kurtis as they explored the Island.

"Any ideas where to start?" Kurtis asked

"I think we should go look around the island first, instead of swimming around it looking for an entrance." She replied.

They left Giovanni and took their gear then headed into the wilderness with no idea where they were going or what they were looking for. Kurtis seemed a little unenthusiastic about the way Lara was going about finding the tomb but she was the Tomb raider so he followed without protest.

"Look!" Lara called to Kurtis as she pointed to a tall Rock that lay horizontally on its side pointing north. Lara walked over to it and ran her fingers over the ruff surface of it until she found what she saw, marking "It's written in Latin, it says **_'The Darkness of shadows is the gate way.'_** any ideas?"

"Nope, but lets just follow the rock and find out." Lara rolled her eyes and led on in the direction that the rock pointed.

After a while they were no longer on the path but walking straight through the Forest and its wilderness, Lara pushed through the bushes and the tangled messes of thorn bushed that wrapped around her feet threatening to trip her.

The path grew narrower and darker until Lara couldn't see a thing

"Kurtis?"

"Yeah I'm here." he replied then Lara felt a hand rest on her arm, she took her bag off and blindly searched for her torch. She pulled it out of her bag and turned it on sending a single beam of light ahead of her onto a watery surface

"Kurtis, I think we have found the place." She said as she saw they were standing right on the edge of a considerably big lake with a small island in the middle that had a tall tree planted on it, Lara shone the light up at the sky to see why there was no light. The reason was that the trees had grown so strong that their branches extended all the way to the middle to the branches of the great tree that grew in the centre of the lake, and even in winter, their leaves were green.

Lara and Kurtis wore their wet suits over their clothes and attached all their gear then started to wade into the water.

"Let's swim over to that tree first." Kurtis said

"Good idea," Lara continued on the stopped "Kurtis take my hand as I only have one torch and we better not loose each other."

"You just want to hold hands with me." Kurtis grinned

"Just do it." Lara snapped then placed her mouthpiece in her mouth and took Kurtis's hand.

They both went under water and were briefly in complete darkness until Lara turned on her torch and they swam forward towards the middle of the Lake to look at the tree.


	10. The tree

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It is I! I am back from my holiday…well if u can call it that, I did basically what I do at home but with company :P

I have been back for a whil but I haven't had the writing buzz, I had the reading buzz. I finally finished "the fellowship" yippee!….but I still have to more books to go --'

Anyway it was so nice to open my hotmail and find more reviews!! Its so nice to know people are actually reading this!

Anyway now I am not going away (at least I think not, maybe in august for my b-day for two days) again so I will update as much as I can and get this finished and hopefully start a new fic.

Disclaimer: as nothing has changed I still don't anything that belongs to core or Eidos, all that is mine is the plot

Chapter 10

"The Tree"

Lara and Kurtis waded out of the dark water and onto the small island that had the great tree planted in its centre. To the both of them the tree seemed abnormal and mysterious, and as they neared it, they realised that the wood was dead yet the leaves on its branches were green and healthy.

Lara walked up to the tree and shone her torch onto its body looking for some clue when she saw burnt into the wood a single symbol that was nearly as tall as her.

Something in her mind jolted as she saw it, it was the mark that Karel had on his hand.

"Do you know what that symbol means?" Lara asked

"It does look familiar…it probably angelic script." Kurtis said as they walked closer to it

"Karel had it on the palm of his hand." Lara started to walk around the tree looking for some kind of entrance of lever "It looked like it was burnt into his hand."

"Ouch." Kurtis winced at the thought

"Aren't you meant to be a tough guy?" Lara asked playfully

"Yeah…but there are two types of pains that I am afraid of."

"And they are?" Lara turned around and flashed the torch in Kurtis's eyes as if she was interrogating him

"Why should I tell you?" He said as he tried to hide from the light with his hand but Lara kept moving the torch "Would you stop shinning that thing in my face please?"

"Not until you tell me." Lara smiled with a small grin

"Burning and needles." He mumbled

"Needles?" Lara chuckled, Kurtis shot her a look then grabbed the torch then grabbed Lara around the waist and pulled her against him and shone the light in her eyes

"What about you?" he whispered as he leant in closer towards her

"I'm not afraid of anything." Lara said while in her head she was battling the urge to kiss him

"I think you are." Kurtis moved in even closer that their lips were near to touching

"Let go of me." Lara whispered quietly

"I don't think that's what you want." Kurtis was about to move in and kiss her but Lara placed her hands on his chest and pushed away from him releasing herself from his grasp

"Who are you to say what I want?" Lara said as she turned her back to him and looked over the symbol again.

__

'God I hate him but at the same time I want to give into him.' Lara thought bitterly

"So, any ideas?" Lara asked

"Not really." Kurtis grunted

Lara sighed and knew it would be the same as earlier; he wouldn't talk to her until he eventually came around.

"You're so helpful." Lara sighed and extended her hand scraping it across the design then she winced in pain.

"What happened?" Kurtis quickly asked

"Nothing, I just cut my hand." Lara replied as she tried to look for a bandage in her bag

"Here let me help." Kurtis sighed and knelt down next to her. He held the torch over the bag and pulled out a roll of bandages and a pair of scissors, he took Lara's hand and cut a small piece of bandage to clean up the blood trickling from her palm. He then cut a larger piece and wrapped it around her hand then gentle knotted it.

"Thank you." Lara smiled at him

"Whatever," he said coldly making Lara roll her eyes "So what cut you anyway?"

"There must have been something sticking out of the wood." Lara got up and walked over to the tree still shinning the light on it, there was now a red mark on the symbol from where she had cut her hand but there was nothing there to have cut her. "Kurtis do you see anything sharp here?"

He looked carefully where she had cut herself but saw nothing "No…that is really weird."

"Do you know how perceptive you are?" She said sarcastically which caused Kurtis to shoot her a look that said shut up without moving his mouth "Do you think Karel is here?" Lara asked trying to change the subject.

But before Kurtis could reply suddenly, a bright red light issued from the mark with a loud hissing noise. When the light died down Lara and Kurtis looked at the tree and saw that the symbol had disappeared and now there was a large hole where it was.

"Well, it looks like our problem is solved." Kurtis said as he took the torch and shone it down the hole "it's a long drop but there is water at the bottom. I'll go first." He said to Lara and handed her the torch.

Kurtis sat on the edge of the hole while Lara shone the light down into the water and then he let go. Lara heard a loud splash that seem to go on forever and when it finally died down she still heard nothing from Kurtis

"Kurtis!" She shouted down into the tree and shone the light down on the still foaming water, his head then suddenly appeared out of the water and he was gasping for air "Are you alright?!"

"Yeah!" he called "It's a lot deeper than I thought. Wait! I found a shallow bit."

"I'm going to throw the torch down!" Lara shouted then she tossed the torch at him and he caught it

"Ready!" Kurtis shouted as he shown the torch onto the water directly under Lara.

Lara checked her bag was safely fastened to her back and was closed up completely then she climbed over the hole and jumped down into the water below.

Was good or not? Please Review 


	11. Karel?

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I am not too happy with this update but I did not like any of my other ideas for this update so I deleted the others and chose this one.

Hope you guys like it and thank you all for the great reviews hands out cookies for all :P

Chapter 11

"Karel?"

Lara felt cold water rush over her as she splashed into the deep water, she kept sinking further and further excepting to feel the bottom of the pool but it never came. She was running out of breath and she was already so deep it was making her ears pop. She stretched out her arms and started to swim up to the top.

Lara could feel her head starting to pound and she felt heavier as she desperately tried to swim faster to the surface.

She flew out of the water and took a deep breath of air, her head still aching and her lungs slowly filled with air. She felt a strong hand grab her from behind and pull her to the shallow part of the pool.

"Are you okay?" Kurtis asked

"Just peachy," Lara panted, "How do we get out of here?"

"Through there." Kurtis pointed behind them into a dark tunnel, Lara stood up and took the torch from him then shone it into the darkness of the tunnel.

They walked through the tunnel guided by the torch light, the dust sticking their wet boots, water dripped silently from Lara's plait, their footsteps making the only noise inside the dark tunnel.

They walked for what seemed like an eternity searching in the dimming light for the end of the tunnel or an exit.

"Am I hallucinating or is there light up ahead?" Lara asked Kurtis

"No I see it too." he replied

There were thin strips of light coming from the wall and ground at the end of the tunnel. As they neared the light, they realised that it was a door, and the light was coming from behind it. The door was made of strong steel, it had bolts connecting to the sides of the walls and in the middle, there was the same symbol as that was on the tree.

"Okay…now what?" Kurtis asked making Lara sigh and roll her eyes "Hey you're the tomb raider."

"Well, first of all maybe we should try to figure out how we solved the tree problem as that may help us." Lara replied as she put her hands on her hips

"Well it probably had a lot to do with your blood."

"Probably," she looked down at her hand that had the bloodstained bandage wrapped around it "I'll try again." she unravelled the bandage and pressed the cut against the cold door on top of the symbol. She winced slightly as she felt her tender flesh sting against the steal, and then she withdrew her hand leaving a few drops of blood behind. She rewrapped her hand then stood back next to Kurtis waiting for something to happen.

But after 5 minutes, there was no movement at all from the door

"I don't get it, what did we do differently last time?" Lara said as she sunk to the ground and stared at the door "We have got to hurry and figure this out, for all we know Karel could be here already."

"Thank you Captain obvious." Kurtis said sarcastically, and then a loud noise came from the door, the bolts were moving.

The bolts sunk into the wall then it swung open covering Lara and Kurtis in a bright light, they exchanged confused looks then gingerly walked through the door. They were now in a long hall, lined with oil lanterns hanging from the ceiling, great stone pillars stood in the middle creating a long aisle and along the floor, there was a beautiful mosaic of the same symbol that was on the tree and the door

"How did we open that?" Lara said in awe

"I have a hunch." Kurtis said then he turned around facing the door muttered "Karel."

The door shuddered as he spoke then it slammed shut and the bolt slotted back into place

"Now I am really confused." Lara shook her head

"Ditto," Kurtis agreed "But it will probably explain itself later on, let's move on."

They walked down to the end of the aisle to a set of stairs.

****

Kinda short I know, sorry the next will be better and longer I promise


	12. Cyrus's Crypt

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I know it has been a while and you can all hit me if u want sits patiently for bashing but I've been writing something else for a competition and its taking up a lot of my time, but I said to myself today that I gotta do an uppie. Anyway hope it was worth the wait

Chapter 12

"Cyrus's Crypt"

The further that Lara and Kurtis travelled down the stairs it grew colder and damper than before making Lara shiver slightly, she was starting to feel the cold for one of the first times in her life. To keep her mind off it she tried to think of things that would make sense as to why the doors would open when they said Karel, or why hadn't the mysterious phoenix turned up yet? But she found that it was pointless, as she had no clues on how to figure out either enigma, _'I wonder if Kurtis knows, I'm not sure if he did whether he would tell me or not…I highly doubt that he would.'_ She looked up at Kurtis at the thought, he walked confidently ahead with his head high and a serious expression on his face, he looked like he was about to go into battle.

Kurtis noticed she was staring at him and she quickly turn away making him raise an eyebrow and grin slightly, but Lara didn't notice as she was pretending to adjust her backpack straps so she could hide her blushing cheeks. Kurtis knew that's why he was grinning then when he looked ahead again he silently chuckled and thought to himself _'I knew it, she has just been hiding the whole time. Each time we get close she lets her defences down and gives in then just at the wrong moment they come up again and she says some kind of sarcastic comment.'_

"What are you laughing at?" Lara asked

"Oh nothing." Kurtis replied trying to suppress a grin but failed

"Liar, what's so funny?"

"Why do you care?" He asked, and then added now with an evil grin "I have a better question. What were you staring at?"

"Oh nothing." Lara said exactly as he did

"Bullshit." He replied

"Never mind." Lara blushed again then looked around for some kind of escape and saw that they had reached the end of the stairs. They were now in a rather dimly lit room, in the middle of the room there was a long crypt, and it was at least 7 feet or more and decorated with the same symbol from all the other doors "Well looks like we found Cyrus."

Lara walked over to the crypt and ran her fingers over it, it was made of black marble and the symbols were carved into it then filled with silver. It was very grand and beautiful to her that made it seem like even more of a shame when she found out it had been sealed shut and they would have to smash it.

"Kurtis you have the crowbar, would you rather I did it or would you like the honour?" She asked

"I'll do it." He unhooked the crowbar from his bag then brought it down onto the lid smashing a large chunk of the beautiful workmanship then he brought it down a second making an even bigger hole. Kurtis picked up the debris and threw it to the ground making it shatter into more pieces

"Don't you have any feelings for the craftsmanship that went into that?" Lara asked irritably

He looked at her and pretended to think

"No," Then he crashed the crowbar into the cracked lid with such force he finished the job, he flashed Lara a grin then picked up the rest and threw it on the ground with the other pieces "It was crafted by them so I don't give a shit."

"How can you be so immature?" Lara snapped

"Look its just a dead Nephilim's crypt; it's not fucking Atlantis or Jimmy Hoffa." Kurtis replied, "Let's take a look at old ugly here."

They both looked into the crypt and saw not a decayed skeleton but an intact perfect body. His skin was as white as cream, his hair was still shinning in the dim light after all those years and his face seemed so angelic and perfect

"Are you sure he's dead?" Kurtis asked and he leant in and lightly poked the corpses arm

"I would have thought you had seen a lot of corpses in your life." Lara looked at him and grinned then added, "I am almost certain he is dead, anyway look what's on his chest." Lara pointed at the body for there lay a leather bound book no bigger than a notebook on his chest clasped in his hands, she reached in and wrestled the book away from the corpse with small difficulty and placed it carefully in a waterproof bag then into her backpack.

"You were right," Kurtis said then leant into the crypt "He is dead."

"I said it earlier and I will say it again, your so perceptive." then she walked over to him and looked at the body "What made you say that?"

"Look closely at his heart." Kurtis replied, then Lara obliged and looked at the left of the body's chest where the clothing had been ripped and bloodstained but covered by the book, she spread open his shirt then recoiled from the body

"That is not supposed to be like that." She gasped. Underneath the rip in his shirt was, where a wound should have been, there was instead a huge hole. It was as if someone had cut away all the flesh then dug out the muscle, ribs and taken the heart, but the most bizarre part was that the entire area had turned grey like it was made of ash and when Lara touched it she realised it was, as it collapsed into dust under her fingers.

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" Lara asked Kurtis

"Yes, its one of the ways of killing a nephilim. Towards the end of the Lux Veritatus no one was doing it anymore. I think we should get back Lara, I have a bad feeling about this place…it was too easy."

Lara nodded then they both hurried out of the chamber and back up the stairs at a faster pace than before. They burst through the mouth of the stairs into the long hall again but now they were not met with warm light, but almost complete darkness and a light rumbling sound

"Kurtis is that what I think it is?" Lara asked unsurely

"If you think it sounds like gushing water you would be right!" He cried then water threw the door, their only exit, off it hinges and continued to gallop towards them like wild mustangs, Kurtis grabbed Lara by the waist and pulled her over to the nearest corner and placed her behind him just in time to miss the water. Then he extend his palms outward as the water raged towards them and just a few inches away from Kurtis's hands it crashed against an invisible barrier making Kurtis groan slightly. Lara realised what he was doing but she didn't see how it would really help as the water was still rushing in by the gallon, she was also worried if he could hold on for long enough.

"Lara it's getting stronger!" he shouted to her "Hold on to me as tightly as you can!" Lara didn't hesitate; she wrapped her arms around his chest tightly and closed her eyes.

The water engulfed them as soon as Kurtis brought his arms down; they were thrown around in the strong current holding onto each other as strongly as possible hoping that they wouldn't be thrown into anything.

Soon Lara was starting to feel dizzy and her chest was pounding, she was running out of air. The water was getting less rough and Lara could feel her legs gently float. She nudged Kurtis with her knee to get his attention, then he looked at her and she pointed to her throat he nodded at started to swim as fast as possible to the exit with Lara hanging onto him.

Kurtis swam into the long tunnel with still plenty of air making Lara envious and thankful at the same time, she wished she had his lungs but thankful at least one of them had them. Kurtis could feel Lara's grip loosening he knew she wouldn't make it to the tree even thought it was so close, he took her hand and turned to face her. They looked at each other for a moment, Lara could tell what he was thinking as and his eyes were saying everything for him. She nodded slightly and closed her eyes then Kurtis brought his lips to hers.

She took in as much air as she needed but found herself not breaking away from him; she also felt Kurtis's hands on her back pulling her closer to him. She was helpless, she was letting her guard down and she was confused, one part of her never wanted to break away from Kurtis and another part of her was screaming at her to push him off.

She chose the second part of her subconscious and pushed him away, Kurtis looked at her with bewilderment and anger. Lara just stared at him coldly then swam past him and eventually he followed, Lara swam as fast as possible to the pool area that was now under water. She reached into her bag and pulled out her torch then shone it upwards to the hole and swam up not waiting for Kurtis.

She reached the top and gasped from air then pulled herself out of the tree, she wanted to run as far away as possible, she didn't want to see him; she just wanted to forget what had happened.

She waited a few seconds until her came out of the tree then before he could say anything she dived into the black water and swam on the surface to he could follow the light.

****

I know that you can't see that well when you're underwater, but whatever….

Hehehee that was a fun uppie, must go plot wonders off


	13. Revealed

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I know it has been ages since I did an uppie and I really don't have much of an excuse except, for homework, writers block and a fanfic competition. Anyway I am now on holiday and I plan to update as much as possible. This uppie is dedicated to Laraslilgirl (not sure if u have the same handle here, so I used ur one from Lara's treasure room) if she didn't tell me she really enjoyed this fic, I wouldn't have gotten my butt into gear and really tried to write.

And Btw I noticed after re-reading this I have made loads of mistakes! Its really embarrassing, so soon ( I dunno when, maybe when i finish this fic) I am gonna go over every chappy and edit them till they are perfect.

Anyway, without further a due here is the long awaited update.

13. Revealed

Lara waded out of the water and waited for Kurtis. She tapped her foot impatiently and her expression was a look of pure hatred, she was pissed but she didn't want to blame him. He was only trying to keep her alive, but towards the end it didn't feel like he was just giving her oxygen, it was more of a kiss. He had taken advantage of the situation. After a couple of minutes Kurtis stepped out of the water and walked over to Lara, he opened his mouth as if to say something but Lara just walked away back into the forest. The leaves and branches rustled as she strode over them trying to get out of Kurtis's reach but he was to fast. He grabbed her by the arm and turned her towards him. Lara stared at him with cold menacing eyes

"Let go of me or I will make you let go of me." She growled, she looked like at him with such a glare it would have made anyone else back down, except Kurtis. He kept his grasp firmly on her arm and stared back at her with the same look of anger and menace.

"Why are you so angry at me?" He questioned

"Why the fuck do you think?" Lara spat as she yanked her arm out of his hand

"I don't know," Kurtis sighed "If it has anything to do with the mouth to mouth thing I was only trying to keep you in the land of the living."

"It may have started that way, but it sure as hell didn't end that way!" Lara shouted

"Shut the fuck up." Kurtis hissed "For all we know Karel could be here."

"Are you having one of your Lux Veritatus moments?" Lara said sceptically "Do you have some kind of six sense?" She turned to leave but a new voice from behind her made her stop dead in her tracks

"I'm not sure whether he does or not, but he is right." Suddenly a small light turned on and the owner of the voice stepped out of the shadows into Lara's torch beam. It was a woman. She had long blonde hair that reached her knees tied in a loose plait, her eyes were olive green, she had pink pouting lips and soft smooth skin. She had this amazing glow that hugged her frail figure, it was like a visible aura. As Kurtis and Lara looked at her they found themselves at peace, they no longer felt the anger from their argument. They were hypnotised, it was the ultimate high.

"Who are you?" Lara finally asked

"I will keep my name to myself for the moment, but you can call me Phoenix for now." She replied with a warm smile at Lara

"You're the one who knocked me out back in Prague? But I thought a man had informed the police."

"In a way it is true. A man did prove your innocence but…" A noise of rustling leaves made Phoenix stop "I know you probably have lots of questions, but now is not the time. Please follow me." She turned and walked back into the shadows through a thick thorny bush. Lara and Kurtis exchanged glances, they were slightly unsure on whether to follow her or not. Another noise of rustling leaves and branches followed by voices made them both practically sprint through the bush. On the other side Phoenix stood waiting.

"Quick, turn off your lights." She whispered, both Lara and Kurtis complied and they stood in complete darkness.

The sound of people walking over dead leaves and breaking branches under their boots was now louder and clearer. Through the thick leaves and branches of the bush Lara could see two man dressed in black cloaks walking down the path they had come on, they could only be two people. Karel and his jittery friend from the airport. Lara felt her blood boil, _'If he were human I would shot him right now, even if it meant I would reveal our hiding place. At least he would be dead.'_. She watched him pass as if he were her prey _'One day.'_ she told herself.

Kurtis nudged her lightly and pointed to what was making all the noise from before. Following Karel and his friend were about twenty soldiers all armed with rifles, handguns and bright torches. If they saw any sign of movement from the bush they would be able to see the three of them in a nanosecond. Lara stayed completely still, no noise was heard except the crunching of branches. Lara held her breath as she watched them all pass and waited a few mintures for good measure then sighed in relief.

"That was close." Kurtis said

"To close, we better get moving." Lara turned to Phoenix "We have a boat waiting for us on the beach."

Phoenix nodded then they all walked out of the bush and jogged back to the beach with Kurtis in the lead, Phoenix behind him and Lara after her.

The trio emerged from the forest out onto the beach where their boat sat silently as the waves crashed into it but Giovanni was nowhere to be seen.

"Can you see him anywhere?" Lara asked Kurtis

"No…" He looked around scanning the shoreline

"Something is wrong…this doesn't feel right. When we left him he had a small fire burning and a radio playing." Lara walked over to the spot where the fire had been and saw now a smoking pile of ash and next to it the sand was wet "Someone put it out."

"He must have seen Karel coming." Kurtis added "Look, you can see he tried to run but they caught up with him." The trio followed the footprints up to the border of the forest, now they saw a large mess of overturned sand and blood. They had shot him then dragged him back down to the shore, the young boy dug his hands into the sand in a desperate attempt to survive but only created a long trail to his grave. Lara ran down the trail leading to the little boat, her heartbeat racing. Even though she didn't know Giovanni at all, all she knew was that he was an innocent boy trying to make some money to help his family and she dragged him into something he had no part in. When Lara reached the boat she recoiled in disgust, Kurtis and Phoenix ran over to her then had the same reaction as they saw what Karel had done to their guide. Giovanni lay in a pool of his own blood curled in a foetal position with his hands and feet tied by ropes, he had been shot four times in the back and twice in the chest but worst of all they had decapitated him. His head lay at his feet, mouth open and eyes rolled back. He had been screaming in agony.

"That bastard!" Kurtis cried as he looked at the teenager's corpse

"Shhhh!" Phoenix hissed "We must leave. I am sorry for your loss but we must go before it is-"

"Too late?" A snide voice queried, Lara and Kurtis instinctively went for their guns but the stopped as they heard rifles being loaded, they were outnumbered "Yes, I think that would be unwise. So please put your hands on your head and we will relieve you of your weapons."

Kurtis, Lara and Phoenix slowly raised their hands to their heads and turned to face Karel and his small army. As usual he greeted them with a sinister smile and an egotistical expression. Two men walked over to Lara and Kurtis and took their weapons then went back to their spots.

"Akasha!" Karel said in disbelief as he saw them turn, Kurtis and Lara seemed bewildered but Phoenix just looked like she had been hit in the stomach "I should have guessed you would have helped these two."

"Why are you doing this?" She asked "You know if you bring them back they will only destroy this planet, they may even destroy you. Or had you forgotten they have no sense of self-control?"

"Dear sister," Lara looked over at Akasha in surprise, she had not seen that coming "Although you may think of that as a disaster I see it as a blessing. It would be the end of the human's and the beginning of the Nephilim."

__

'Oh god not again, why do they always have to have some kind of fucked up idea of world bloody domination? Can't they be original for once!' Lara rolled her eyes as she thought about all the other megalomaniacs she had dealt with in the past.

"You watch way to many movies." Kurtis smiled and chuckled at Karel's small speech. Karel smiled at him and slowly walked over to him with a look of extreme poise then suddenly he crashed his fist into Kurtis's stomach making him fall to his knees. Karel bent down and whispered in his ear

"I suppose you're going to tell me that I will never get away with this, am I right?" Karel asked as he overflowed with glee.

"Fuck you Karel." Lara spat as she watched him wind Kurtis up "Your nothing but a pathetic villain, I have met many like you before and I always made sure they fail. So fuck you."

Karel smiled then slowly applauded "I love your spirit Lara, its very refreshing…it reminds me of myself when I was your age. Don't you think Adam?" The jittery man standing next to Karel nodded violently, he seemed very shaken and he was watching Akasha from the corner of his eye "This is my brother Adam. Lady Croft and Mr.Trent, you are privileged to witness this little family reunion and you will be even more so when you met my father in Turkey."

"As far as I am concerned that will never happen." Kurtis replied as he looked at Karel with disgust, Karel returned the expression.

"Lara, if you please give me the book." Karel walked over to her and extended his hand, but she stood her ground.

"Fine." Karel sighed then grabbed Lara and turned her around to open her bag.

Lara didn't know what to do, for once she was out of ideas. There was no way they could get away fast enough in the boat and they were outnumbered so fighting was out of the question. She looked over at Kurtis for help, but he was no help, he had no ideas either. Karel had won.

All of a sudden Lara heard Karel scream in pain, Lara spun around and saw him clutching his hand that was engulfed in flames. Akasha had her hand outstretched in his direction and a satisfied smile on her lips.

"Hold onto me." She instructed the dazed couple, who both grabbed her arms before the soldiers could react. Lara closed her eyes expecting her body to be riddled with bullets any second but instead she heard the laughter of children and the loud honking of car horns. They were back in Gaeta, right infront of their hotel.

"How did you do that!" Kurtis asked as he looked around to make sure he was really there.

"Its one of my powers." She smiled at him "Lets go get your stuff then go back to my place, we have a few hours before my brother will find us."

****

Well hope you liked it, I had fun writing it

P.S In case u don't remember Giovanni was the teenager who brought Lara and Kurtis to the island.


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